Audacious Atrocities

"The Assyrians are notorious for their cruelty: they displace nations, rip open pregnant women, and practice unspeakable atrocities; one Assyrian ruler boasted that he had flayed nobles alive, burned 3,000 people, and cut off noses, ears, and hands of soldiers. He even spoke of burning maidens as a holocaust. Sennacherib, king of Assyria, sweeps across Northern Israel and into the territory of Judah, capturing fortified cities along the way. At each victory his arrogance toward God grows. He sends the Rabshakeh (possibly "Governor") with a great army, surrounds Jerusalem, and seeks to intimidate King Hezekiah and all of Jerusalem by asking,..."